Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Run-off elections are coming up in Los Angeles, on the heels of abysmal voter turnout in March.
But one non-profit group has an idea it hopes can cure voter apathy in LA. The Southwest Voter Registration Project wants people to cast their ballots for the L.A. Board of Education race in District 5 -- which includes parts of Los Feliz and Echo Park and parts of Lynwood and Bell -- and is offering a shot at $25,000 to do so.
"This is a school board that influences the lives of $650,000 children," said Mario Solis, who represents the Southwest Voter Registration Project, the group behind the lottery. "So participation in our school board race, and really in our local democracy, is extremely important."
The Southwest Voter Registration Project aims to increase the Latino vote. While one of the candidates for District 5, Ref Rodriguez, is Latino, Solis does not think that this incentive will tip the scales in his favor.
"Both of these candidates in the run-off race have publicly stated that they've both done an excellent job of reaching out to Latino voters. So we are not interested in siding with one over the other. Seventy-four percent of this district are Latino voters, so if we look at that district, and we look at the general population of that district, yes, it does happen to be Latino. But everybody is equally incentivized to participate in this race."
While this is a pilot program, Solis says if it is successful, the group would do it again.